World Business Briefing | Europe: Germany: Skepticism On Cable Deal

Published: February 23, 2002

The chief executive of Deutsche Telekom, Ron Sommer, sees little chance the sale of six cable TV networks to the Liberty Media Corporation will go ahead and said his company might not sell stock in its mobile unit until 2003. Mr. Sommer had counted on the 5.5 billion euro ($4.8 billion) cable sale to Liberty, controlled by John C. Malone, and the initial share sale of T-Mobile International to help reduce the former German monopoly's 65 billion euros ($56.5 billion) in debt. ''The chances the Liberty sale will go ahead are very slim,'' Mr. Sommer said at a news conference in Berlin. ''But I don't give up hope. It would be a shame if we would lose an investor like Liberty.''